Please join us for a free event for the scientific community — graduate level and higher — at the Simons Foundation, located on 21st Street in Manhattan. Limited seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. We encourage you to obtain tickets online now. Search by series or speaker, view the monthly calendar and access video on simonsfoundation.org.
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AUTISM: EMERGING CONCEPTS
How Immune Cells Help Wire the Brain: Implications for Autism and Psychiatric Illness Wednesday, November 2, 2016 Speaker: Beth Stevens 4:15PM Tea; 5:00PM Lecture |
Recent research has revealed a key role for microglia and a group of immune-related molecules, called complement, in normal developmental synaptic pruning, a process required to establish precise brain wiring. Emerging evidence from Stevens’ lab and others suggest aberrant regulation of this pruning pathway may contribute to synaptic and cognitive dysfunction in a host of brain disorders, including schizophrenia. Studies also suggest that a person’s risk of schizophrenia is increased if he or she inherits specific variants in complement C4, which plays a well-known role in the immune system but also helps sculpt developing synapses in the mouse visual system. Together these findings may help explain known features of schizophrenia, including reduced numbers of synapses in key cortical regions and an adolescent age of onset that corresponds with developmentally timed waves of synaptic pruning in these regions. Stevens will discuss this and ongoing work to understand the mechanisms by which complement and microglia prune specific synapses in the brain. A deeper understanding of how these immune mechanisms mediate synaptic pruning may provide novel insight into how to protect synapses in autism and other brain disorders. Dr. Stevens is an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Boston Children’s Hospital and a member of the Broad Institute. Her laboratory seeks to understand how neuron-glia communication facilitates the formation, elimination and plasticity of synapses — the points of communication between neurons during both healthy development and disease states. Stevens is a recipient of several young investigator awards, including the Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging; John Merck Scholar Program; Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers; and a MacArthur Fellowship. |
The Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium offers accessible seating to patrons with special access needs. Please fill out the special accommodations request when ordering your ticket online. Most events in the auditorium are video recorded by the organizer, and many are photographed. The resulting media may be used by the event organizer(s) on its website(s), or elsewhere. Audio or visual recording and photography by attendees is not permitted without prior approval of the organizer. |
Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium
Simons Foundation 160 Fifth Avenue at 21st Street, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10010 |
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